Dance Educator/Teacher, Physical Therapist/Physiotherapist, Pilates Instructor

Sophie Ryan – Dance-Specific Physiotherapist & Dance Conditioning Teacher BHSc (Phty), NZRP, Cred. MDT, Nat. Dip. Dance, Pilates Instructor, Certified PBT Sophie Ryan is an ex-professional dancer, now dance physiotherapist and dance conditioning teacher, with a strong focus on safe dance practice. A graduate of the New Zealand School of Dance, she performed professionally with Black Grace Dance Company. Sophie completed her Pilates apprenticeship at Dance Pilates in Auckland, the creators of Movitae, and taught for them for four years. She taught advanced open classical technique, pointe and dance conditioning at Auckland Academy of Dance for eight years, before moving to Wellington in 2016 - she has taught for Wellington Dance Academy since then, including dance conditioning, pre-pointe and pointe foundations classes. She completed her Progressing Ballet Technique training in Australia in 2017, which she incorporates into her dance conditioning classes, alongside the Dance 11+ programme and her own syllabus she has developed over the years, based on her clinical experience working with dancers. For five years Sophie held the position of dance conditioning tutor and was part of the Health Professionals team for the New Zealand School of Dance, also providing individual clinical rehab sessions for dancers with complex injuries at the School. Sophie graduated with a Bachelor in Health Science majoring in Physiotherapy from AUT in 2012, and has continued her professional development with ongoing courses and learning in dance health, manual therapy, exercise rehab. She treats dance students, dance teachers and professional dancers, including dancers from the New Zealand Dance Company, Footnote, Java Dance, the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Opera Australia, Ballet Collective Aotearoa, freelancers and pre professionals about to commence their first contracts. Sophie works as a dance physiotherapist in central Wellington, New Zealand. If you would like to enquire about an appointment, please email sophieryanphysio@gmail.com.